WobbleWonder

WobbleWonder is a full-on Virtual reality experience using the Oculus Rift! You, the participant, uses a virtual Segway to travel through a virtual reality fantasy world with the fun of speeding while the wind blows through your hair. The travel mechanism is a Wobble Board containing an accelerometer, which simulates a Segway in the VR world. It’s very fun, leaning forward moves you forward through the world and leaning backwards moves backwards. The faster you lean, the faster you move!

Check out our world : Press the Play button! Use the up/down and left/right arrows to navigate.

How we made it : The virtual world is created in Unity3D and Blender. Coding in Unity was done in C# and firmware was coded for Arduino. Custom electronics were designed to drive the fans. The wobble board contains an Android phone inside of it, the accelerometer in the phone talks wirelessly to the game. I posted some thoughts about this on Hackaday Projects.

The Oculus Rift has a gyroscope that sets the X,Y,Z position in 3D space and allows motion in the direction you look in.

A helmet containing fans blow on you if you move fast enough, causing the participant to feel as though the wind is blowing in your face. And LEDs!

We also attached a Leap Motion to the experience, which allows you to reach out and touch some images. The Leap Motion is a gesture reader.

Martha, Takafumi and I met through a program in July 2014 called Art-A-Hack. Art-A-Hack is set up to combine artists, engineers and art-engineers in groups to create something ambitious and wonderful. Adelle joined the group in August 2014 to continue the project as a World Maker Faire NYC exhibit.